A Mission Of Love And Laughter

Friday November 2nd we return for another tour of Comedy 4 Cancer. Proceeds from this event will be donated to the Pagel family. I had the pleasure of meeting a young warrior battling cancer named Maddie in August 2016. We went out to Grand Rapids to give her our Best Day Award / Gift.

Since then, we have helped them out before with our Comedy 4 Cancerevents. Now they needs us more then ever. All proceeds from our November 2nd show will be donated to them. Learn more about Maddie from what her mother wrote below.

Maddies story ....

Madison was diagnosed in January 2011 with a rare form of brain cancer. Maddie's diagnosis is brain cancer with hydrocephalus and also cancer in her spinal fluid with a spot on her spine. It's called choroid plexus . She was the youngest dx there at only 4 months old.

She endured so much in 8 months ..! she was in ICU for 7 weeks during that time she had Tumor removal , a drain put in to drain the fluid from her brain, Broviac ( line ) put in her chest and immediately started chemo . Then the day before we got discharged she had a Shunt placed. She had a total of 11 cycles of chemo all before she turned 1. To many MRI's, spinal taps and inpatient stays in that short 8 months.The drs put her in remission when she was 13 months old ( October 2011)

She still was getting spinal taps, MRI's every 3 months . Everything was going well , she was finally free living outside the glass. But unfortunately after her 9 month scan and I was 7.5 months pregnant with Avah her dr called and told us that she had relapsed with two new brain tumors. She immediately went in and had a port placed and began outpatient chemo. But Nothing was working , so on September 11, 2013 she underwent another tumor removal and had a tumor marker test done and it came back with 4 different chemos/ meds that will hopefully get rid of her cancer/tumors.

She started the treatment the end of September 2013 and she stopped treatment September 2017. It was a clinical trial and she he was getting 4 different chemos orally every single night at home. 3 of them were liquid and the other ones are capsules that she chews with Reese's peanut butter cups bc she can't swallow them yet.

She goes into clinic 1- 2x a month for counts check, urine check and to meet with her drs and she gets Iv pentamidine to help her fight off certain types of pneumonia. she has been fighting this battle for almost her whole life .The treatment was Doing more harm than good to her body.

Maddie is 8 years old right now ,

She got her port removed a month ago bc it stopped working and her last MRI showed her tumor has not changed

( stable ) she will have MRI's every 4 months to make sure it stays that way. She has been fighting this battle for almost her whole life .

She is living one day at a time ... fighting stronger and braver every single day .

Brain tumors can increase pressure on the brain and cause the skull to get bigger. A CPT may be noncancerous (benign) or cancerous: ... Choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), the cancerous form, grows faster and are much more likely to spread through the cerebrospinal fluid and invade nearby tissue.

Madison( Maddie ) is 8

Avah is 6

Hunter is 3

We are having a daily struggle from all Maddie's Side effects of all her treatments she has endured . Some Side effects she is enduring is severe ptsd , anxiety , neuropathy, short term memory loss, learning delays , severe eczema, and paranoia . These are just some of them.

She is trying to be just a normal 8 year old but unfortunately a normal 8 year old doesn't talk about dying and if she is going to have to stay at the hospital again. She gets help at school but now looking into counseling for her due to all the trauma she has endured. I'm a single mom with the 3 kids, their dad is around very little . I am Maddie's security blanket I'm the one that has been here from day one . She is a true fighter !

We are experiencing major financial difficulties , needing car repairs and along with health issues not just Maddie but with me as well.

I'm unable to work right now due to a lot tests happening , plus along with my son I can't afford daycare .